MUNICIPAL TRADING

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2379, 8 February 1915, Page 7

MUNICIPAL TRADING

MASTER PLUMBERS' PROTEST.

The action of_ the Wellington City Council in deciding / to inßtal . wateruioters on the time payment system has not been met with favour by members of the Wellington Master Plumbers' Dnion. Recently, a deputation from that body waited on the Finance Committee of the council,, and recommended that it should abandon the proposal. It was decided to go on with it, however, and already a contract has been let for the supply of meters to the city. On the installation of these to the ratepayers, repayment will be made by instalments of 6s. per .annum. In the course of a talk on the subject on Saturday,' Mr. A. J. Petherick, secretary of the Master Plumbers' Union, said that whilst the union was anxious to encourage the introduction of meters as much as possible, the members objected to municipal trading of a kind that caused direct competition with the plumbing trade where only benefit to a few was secured. The City Engineer, said Mr. Petherick, estimated the total cost of supplying and fixing the meters at £3 each. On that basis, taking 200 meters as a first supply, the outlay by the council would be:—-Cost of meters at £2 ss. 9d. each,. £457 10s.; labour in. fixing, two men for two hours at Is. 6d., £60; cost of toby-bos and stopcocks, Bs. 3d. each, £82 10s.: total, £600. The cost of supervision and clerical work, as well as interest on outlay, was apparently not considered by the City Council. Who was to pay that interest and the supervision? If the City Council (or the general-rate-payers) were to pay it, then he estimated that there would''be. an additional cost of £228. If the purchasers of the motors had to pay. it, tiio total cost to them would be £4 7s. 9d.; and not £3, as they imagined: Ten years would be the term for repayment of £3, and fourteen and a half years for the repayment of £4 7s. 9d.~, at the rate of 6s. per annum. During that time, he asked, would the owner be free of repairs? Would the council be free from trouble? Would the instalments be paid regularly? And what would be the position should the owner wish to make a change of addrsss? He contended that the council should let the plumbers take the risks of purchase and fixing for the owner; let them have the worry of collecting the! debt, which, after all, would not exceed the £4 7s. 9d. cost under the council's scheme. They should have . an end of municipal trading where the burden of loss was thrown on the long-suffering and uncomplaining general body of ratepayers.